TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Promising to conduct an inquiry into the alleged Agriculture Department recruitment scam, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar assured the house Tuesday that the preliminary inquiry report on the alleged scam would be tabled in the house before the assembly session concludes on May 2.
The chief minister assured that the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) will conclude its preliminary investigation into the recruitments made between July 2009 and November 2011 within two weeks from April 16.
Parrikar, who also holds the agriculture and vigilance portfolios, said the recruitments were ‘totally manipulated’. He also disclosed that he would inquire into Health Department recruitments as well. “Total manipulation is clearly seen during the employment (process). Supreme Court guidelines on interview marks allocation has been violated…Nearly 70 percent were recruited from Sattari,” he said adding that if all 100 candidates called for interview test get equal marks, it clearly violates Supreme Court guidelines.
Pointing at the list of 100-odd candidates recruited during this period, Parrikar vouched that several were illegal. “There are cases wherein a candidate got enrolled in the Employment Exchange on the very day he got recruited. The recruitments are not done on merit but through manipulation, ,” he said.
“This is a fit case to send a person to jail. I don’t know who will go behind bars but those indulging in illegalities will face imprisonment,” he said in response to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Carlos Almeida.
Almeida had pointed out certain irregularities into the recruitments based on details submitted by the government on the posts and taluka-wise persons employed. He demanded to know whether anyone would go to jail for illegal recruitments.
Two other BJP legislators Ganesh Gaonkar and Pramod Sawant also raised concerns on the illegal appointments. Apprehensions were also raised that during interviews, the interviewee officers give priority to their close relatives.
Parrikar asked the MLAs to submit specific cases of recruitments of undeserved candidates. “Where there is excessive marking on jobs, where undeserved candidates are recruited, all these will be inquired into,” he said.
In the starred question, Almeida also asked the government reasons for disproportionate number of recruits from particular talukas. To this, Parrikar replied that candidates were recruited on the recommendation of the departmental selection committee on merit.
